John Keel
"The unknown is out there. The universe does not exist as we think it exists and we don't exist as we think we exist." - John Keel ' ' About John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle (March 25, 1930 – July 3, 2009) was an influential American journalist and UFOlogist who is best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies. Keel was born in Hornell, New York, the son of a small-time bandleader. His parents separated and he was raised by his grandparents. He was interested in magic (illusion) and had his first story published in a magicians' magazine at age 12. He left school at the age of 16 after taking all the science courses. He later worked as a freelance contributor to newspapers, scriptwriter for local radio and television outlets, and author of many pulp articles. He served in the US Army during the Korean War on the staff of the American Forces Network at Frankfurt, Germany. He claimed that while in the Army he was trained in psychological warfare as a propaganda writer. After leaving the military he worked as a foreign radio correspondent in Paris, Berlin, Rome and Egypt. In 1957, he published Jadoo, a book describing his time in Egypt and India investigating the Indian rope trick and the legendary yeti. In 1966 he produced the "spy and superhero" spoof novel The Fickle Finger of Fate. Influenced by writers such as Charles Fort, he began contributing articles to "Flying Saucer Review" and took up investigating UFOs and other strange sightings as a full-time pursuit. He concluded that a disproportionate number of sightings occurred on Wednesdays. A member of the Screenwriters Guild, Keel reportedly wrote scripts for Get Smart, The Monkees, Mack & Myer for Hire, and Lost in Space. His 1975 book, The Mothman Prophecies was Keel's account of his investigation into alleged sightings in West Virginia of a huge, winged creature called the Mothman. The book combines Keel's account of receiving strange phone calls with reports of mutilated pets and culminates with the December 15th 1967 collapse of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio River. The book was widely popularized as the basis of a 2002 film of the same name starring Richard Gere. Keel suffered a heart attack sometime before October 13, 2006. He admitted himself to New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital on Friday the 13th of October, and underwent successful heart surgery on October 16, 2006. Keel then was moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center on October 26, 2006. Prolific and imaginative, Keel was considered a significant influence to many. His impact cannot be underestimated, especially in terms of his analysis of patterns. The popular cultural influence of Keel has been enormous. It will take future academic studies to fully realize his reach among the subculture that respects and are denizens of his ongoing intellectual playground. Keel lived for many years in the Upper West Side of New York City. He was a bachelor. He died on July 3, 2009 in New York City, at the age of 79. Point Pleasant 1966 John Keel became hooked on the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects, he traveled all over the country interviewing witnesses and conducting his own field research on the subject but the paranormal activity that was overtaking the small town throughout 1966-1967 resulting in Keel adopting that area as his own research microcosm. He had already received numerous reports of strange phenomena that people were experiencing in what he labeled as a UFO flap. As it turned out, Keel would not be disappointed with his selection of Point Pleasant. Upon arriving in Point Pleasant, Keel soon finds that impossible coincidences and strange phenomena would follow him wherever he traveled. He would find the same thing to be happening with many of the eyewitnesses of the creature that was later dubbed "The Mothman". Keel stayed in contact with some of the eyewitnesses for many years and would frequently travel back to Point Pleasant from his home in NYC to conduct more investigations, Keel himself never had a run in with the infamous Mothman, but he often would see strange lights over the town. Eight years later he published his book The Mothman Prophecies which was based on the events he experienced during his time in the small town. More than twenty years after that, a major motion picture was released based on his book. Windows Keel analyzed what he called "windows" which are ways in that strange otherworldly creatures could enter our world. He favored this explanation for Mothman. He thought that there were certain places of high strangeness in the world where these windows opened up and let in vistors. Hes quoted as saying "From time to time the playful inhabitants of the other world climb through the curtain in the areas we call 'windows', and they stalk us to drink our blood and create all kinds of mischievous beliefs and misconceptions in our feeble little terrestrial minds" and "This planet is haunted by us; the other occupants just evade boredom by filling our skies and seas with monsters". Waves / Flaps Waves, or Flaps, as they are often called, is terminology used for a large amounts strange sightings being reported by witnesses in a specific area at a specific time. Its a way of describing a sudden influx of reports of the same thing in one concentrated area. Like a wave coming in from the ocean or a wave of physical letters and paper reports pouring into an office. A flap is literally a "crazy time" when hysteria reigns, when things build on top of things and connect. There is also the idea that a large amounts of sightings can be used as almost a form of statistical data to understand where a creature or entity may occupy. Imagine a large bird flying across a map of america and that every time it flaps its wings in flight a point is placed on the map, that is basically the concept of a "flap" being used in this sense. Works: * Jadoo (1957) * The Fickle Finger of Fate (1966) * Strange Creatures From Time and Space (1970) * UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse (1970) * Our Haunted Planet (1971) * The Mothman Prophecies (1975) * The Eighth Tower (1975) * Disneyland of the Gods (1988) * The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings (1994) (revised version of Strange Creatures from Time and Space) * The Best of John Keel (Paperback 2006) (Collection of Keel's FATE Magazine articles) * Flying Saucer to the Center of Your Mind (2013) (A collection of Keel's magazine articles and lectures edited by Andrew Colvin) * The Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone ( 2013) (A collection of Keel's magazine articles and lectures edited by Andrew Colvin) * The Passionate Percipient: Illusions I Have Known and Loved (2015) (Edited by Andrew Colvin) * The Perspicacious Percipient: How to Investigate UFOs and Other Insane Urges (2015) (Edited by Andrew Colvin) References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keel http://cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/keel-obit/ http://www.johnkeel.com/?page_id=3 Category:History